too late.

{Knox}

I have no right to you.

{Margaret}

(_Misunderstanding. _) My husband? He has not been my husband
for years. He has no rights. Who, but you whom I love, has any
rights?

{Knox}

No; it is not that.

(_Snapping his fingers._) That for him.

(_Breaking down._) Oh, if I were only the man, and not the
reformer! If I had no work to do!

{Margaret}

(_Coming to the back of his chair and caressing his hair._) We can
work together.

{Knox}

(_Shaking his head under her fingers._) Don't! Don't!

(_She persists, and lays her cheek against his._) You make it so
hard. You tempt me so.

(_He rises suddenly, takes her two hands in his, leads her gently
to her chair, seats her, and reseats himself in desk-chair._)
Listen. It is not your husband. But I have no right to you. Nor
have you a right to me.

{Margaret}

(_Interrupting, jealously._) And who but I has any right to you?

{Knox}

(_Smiling sadly._) No; it is not that. There is no other woman.
You are the one woman for me. But there are many others who have
greater rights in me than you. I have been chosen by two hundred
thousand citizens to represent them in the Congress of the United
States. And there are many more--

(_He breaks off suddenly and looks at her, at her arms and
shoulders._) Yes, please. Cover them up. Help me not to forget.

(_Margaret does not obey._) There are many more who have rights in
me--the people, all the people, whose cause I have made mine. The
children--there are two million child laborers in these United
States. I cannot betray them. I cannot steal my happiness from
them. This afternoon I talked of theft. But would not this, too,
be theft?

{Margaret}

(_Sharply._) Howard! Wake up! Has our happiness turned your head?

{Knox}

(_Sadly._) Almost--and for a few wild moments, quite. There are all
the children. Did I ever tell you of the tenement child, who when
asked how he knew when spring came, answered: When he saw the
saloons put up their swing doors.

{Margaret}

(_Irritated._) But what has all that to do with one man and one
woman loving?

{Knox}

Suppose we loved--you and I; suppose we loosed all the reins
of our love. What would happen? You remember Gorki, the Russian
patriot, when he came to New York, aflame with passion for the
Russian revolution. His purpose in visiting the land of liberty
was to raise funds for that revolution. And because his marriage
to the woman he loved was